1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to searching for media content. More particularly, the present invention relates to computer mediated discovery of media content availability.
2. Background Art
Although modern communication technologies have made access to information easier than ever before, via the Internet, for example, that potential advantage is often partly offset by the challenges faced by a consumer in attempting to discover personally relevant information regarding the availability of a desired product or service. For example, consider the situation of a potential consumer of movie content utilizing a personal computer (PC) and to search for available movie content online. Movie content, such as content corresponding to a feature film, may be made available to the public through more than one mode of acquisition or consumption. For instance, a feature film may first be released for public consumption via a national theatrical window. During that initial period, the distribution status of the feature film content may limit consumers to viewing it in-theaters. That is to say, the distribution status during the theatrical release window may not include availability to the consumer in distribution forms other than as a theater based screening, such as in the alternative distribution forms of media content available as digital media, Video on Demand (VOD) content, or content recorded on physical media optical discs, for example.
After a period of time, the feature film content may move into a pay-per-view (PPV) window, and perhaps later into a home entertainment window. Based on the distribution status of the feature film content at a particular time, there may be one or more release windows associated with the content and one or more distribution forms associated with the content, as well as a number of additional factors that may affect or vary the distribution status. For example, a particular feature film may be “blacked out” from appearing in certain markets due to exclusive content rights negotiated by a provider of service to those markets. Moreover, physical media, such as a Digital Video Disc (DVD) or Blu-ray disc, may or may not be available from a desired retailer, and when available in principle, may or may not be in stock at a brick-and-mortar retail outlet local to the consumer. In addition, a feature film may simply be in-between release windows and may not be available to the general public at all during that period. The frequently complex rules and scheduling of such content release windows makes it difficult for a consumer to ascertain the availability of desired feature film content, and similarly opaque criteria may govern the availability of other types of content, such as literary and music content, for example.
Conventional approaches to ascertaining the availability of desired content are often ad hoc in nature and typically involve the consumer performing a heuristic search through the vast information repository accessible online to first discover, and then synthesize the various items of information necessary for an understanding of the distribution status of the content with respect to the consumer's locale. Such a process is likely to be mentally fatiguing, time consuming, and generally unpleasant for the consumer.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by disclosing a solution wherein timely, relevant information regarding availability of desired content is collected and made discoverable by a consumer in an intuitive way.